1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for cutting a filled cylindrical dough body, and particularly to an apparatus for cutting a filled cylindrical dough body for producing filled bread, filled Chinese buns, and other food products, without exposing the filler.
2. DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
In the past, production of filled dough products from a filled cylindrical dough body has generally been carried out by cutting the dough body conveyed on a conveyor with a knife or a piano wire mounted on the conveyor. This method tends to expose the filler and cause the dough to adhere to the blade of a cutter, and it has no function to incrust the dough, so that a separate incrusting operation is required.
Japenese Patent Publication No. 1169/69 discloses a confectionery molder where vertically oppositely positioned toothed plates, each having two converging faces to form a tooth, cut a bar-shaped filled dough body conveyed on a conveyor belt, and then the upper toothed plates sway laterally to roll divided dough pieces in a space surrounded by adjacent teeth to form spherical filler-containing dough pieces. Although this apparatus can make ball-shaped filled dough pieces, it requires a complex mechanism and the filler is liable to be exposed when the toothed plates cut the dough body.
In this invention, a cutter with a wedge-form blade cuts a filled cylindrical dough body while it is being conveyed, by the combination of a downward movement and repeated lateral movements and across the surface of the fed cylindrical dough body, so that perfectly incrusted filled dough pieces can be produced without exposing the filler. The cutting operation may be facilitated by a vibrating member and an elastic member underneath a conveyor belt.